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May 23, 2008
The IUCN Red List 2008: Climate change and continental drift
Climate change has become firmly established as an accelerant to many of the factors which have put one in eight of the world's birds at risk of extinction, today’s publication of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of birds has found. Long-term drought and sudden extreme weather are putting additional stress on the pockets of habitat that many threatened species depend on. This coupled with extensive and expanding habitat destruction has lead to an increase in the rate of extinction on continents and away from islands, where most historical extinction has occurred.
The 2008 Red List makes grim reading with 1,226 species of bird now threatened, and eight species newly uplisted to Critically Endangered, the highest threat category. Of the 26 species that changed category owing to changes in their population size, rate of decline or range size, 24 were uplisted to a higher level of threat. These include widespread continental species like Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata and Dartford Warbler Sylvia undata, both previously of Least Concern, and now regarded as Near Threatened in a global context.
Mallee Emuwren © Tony Chittenden, image courtesy of Birdlife International
In Australia, Mallee Emuwren Stipiturus mallee is undergoing a very rapid population decline, and its habitat is now so fragmented that a single bushfire could be catastrophic. Years of drought, particularly in the southern and western parts of the species’s range, have affected the health of the vegetation on which it relies and has almost led to the emuwren’s extinction in South Australia where the last significant population comprises 100 birds confined to 100 km².
In the Galápagos Islands, Floreana Mockingbird Nesomimus trifasciatus is confined to two islets off Floreana. Its population has declined from an estimated maximum of 150 individuals in 1966 to fewer than 60, and is now at risk from extreme weather events. As a result it has been uplisted to Critically Endangered.
In Papua New Guinea, deforestation caused by a rising demand for the cultivation of palm oil has led to species such as New Britain Goshawk Accipiter princeps being uplisted to a higher threat category.
However, there is some good news. Two species whose situation has improved are Marquesan Imperial-pigeon Ducula galeata and Little Spotted Kiwi Apteryx owenii, both the beneficiaries of conservation. Actions plans put in place have resulted in the downlisting of both species to lower threat categories.
“This goes to show not only that conservation action works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species”, says Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's Global Research and Indicators Coordinator.
“Species are being hit by the double whammy of habitat loss and climate change. As populations become fragmented the effect of climate change can have an even greater impact, leading to an increased risk of local extinctions”, Dr Butchart adds.
Climate change is likely to figure more prominently in future Red List updates. Spoon-billed Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus has been uplisted from Endangered to Critically Endangered, owing to accelerating population declines, driven partly by habitat loss and degradation of the tidal flats it depends on in its migratory and wintering ranges. But climate change is expected to have an increasing negative impact on this species and others dependent on tundra for breeding. Modelling indicates that 57% of the Spoon-billed sandpiper's breeding habitat could be lost by 2070.
“This latest update of the IUCN Red List shows that birds are under enormous pressure from climate change,” says Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme. “The IUCN Red List is the global standard when it comes to measuring species loss so we urge governments to take the information contained in it seriously and do their level best to protect the world’s birds.”
To combat the ever increasing threat of extinction to so many species, BirdLife has launched the Preventing Extinctions Programme, the biggest and most wide-ranging bird conservation programme the world has ever seen. The Programme targets all 190 Critically Endangered birds on the 2008 IUCN Red List, by finding ‘Species Champions’ who will fund the work of nominated ‘Species Guardians’ for each bird - organisations and people best placed to carry out the conservation work necessary to prevent the loss of these species.
Posted by Surfbirds at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2008
Lake Natron flamingos still in danger
The spectacular lesser flamingos of Tanzania’s Lake Natron remain in grave danger despite plans to relocate development away from their most important breeding site in the world.
Developers have scrapped plans to build a soda ash factory next to the lake, deep in the Great Rift Valley, but instead want to locate the plant, housing for workers and their families, and other associated buildings, just 22 miles away.
Their plan to extract 500,000 tonnes of soda ash a year from Lake Natron and install pipes and roads across the lake, has not changed, however. That means the hundreds of thousands of lesser flamingos breeding on Lake Natron are still likely to leave if the development goes ahead.
Lesser Flamingo © John Dempsey, from the surfbirds galleries
Lota Melamari, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, said: “Lake Natron’s flamingos are one of the world’s greatest wildlife attractions. They are a resource that must not be destroyed.”
At a meeting in Dar es Salaam last week, hosted by the World Bank, developer Tata Chemicals Limited withdrew its discredited environmental assessment for the project. A new one will be produced, based on development further from the lake.
The proposal is backed by the Tanzanian government, which has formed a management company with Tata, but is fiercely opposed by more than 30 NGOs in Tanzania, the Tanzanian Tourist Board and conservationists across the world including Sir David Attenborough and the RSPB.
Wildlife experts say the development should be abandoned completely because the birds cannot be safeguarded from the disturbance and predation the scheme would cause.
Campaigners are hopeful that the Tanzanian government is now wavering in its support for development at Lake Natron.
Its new Environment Minister, Dr Batilda Burian recently warned investors that their plans would be thrown out if they failed to quell environmental and social fears.
The spectacle created by Lake Natron’s lesser flamingos lures thousands of tourists each year to Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Lake Natron has been East Africa’s only nesting site for the birds for 40 years and the vast majority of the region’s 1.5 to 2.5 million lesser flamingos – three-quarters of the world’s population – are though to have hatched on the lake’s salt flats.
Dr Chris Magin, an International Officer at the RSPB, said: “There is no way a project of this magnitude can operate without permanently scarring the Rift Valley landscape, seriously damaging the livelihoods of many local people and harming wildlife, especially the highly sensitive lesser flamingo.”
Sereno Shao, of the Tanzania Tourist Board, said: “The soda ash proposal must be critically analysed given that Tanzania earns more than US$1 billion from tourism. Our dream of attracting one million tourists by 2010 may not be achieved if we damage key attractions like Lake Natron.”
Posted by Surfbirds at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2008
Seabird onslaught leaves Greenland's cliffs silent
An international campaign is being launched today to halt the slaughter of Greenland's seabirds just as they begin to breed.
Thousands of birds have been killed this spring after Greenland's government caved in to hunters and allowed an extra month of shooting.
Along with Audubon in the US - another organisation with more than one million backers - and two Canadian conservation groups we have appealed to Greenland to restore the ban on hunting in March – imposed by law in 2001 - to give birds like kittiwakes, eider ducks and Brünnich's guillemots chance to recover their numbers.
Kittiwake © Jon Lowes, from the surfbirds galleries
Greenland's 100,000-strong seabird colonies of 40 years ago now total just a few thousand because of intensive hunting and egg collecting. In Iceland, the Brünnich’s guillemot is endangered, its decline blamed on Greenland's hunters.
The first meeting of a special taskforce involving politicians, conservationists and hunters takes place today to try to resolve the conflict.
Amongst those calling for hunting restrictions to be restored is Graham Wynne, Chief Executive of the RSPB. In a letter to Greenland's Cabinet, he said: 'Indigenous peoples worldwide pride themselves on their ability to live sustainably with nature and I see your Government's aim is sustainability.
'But I am afraid the record of seabird protection in Greenland shows a very different story. It is a story of the destruction of nature through an unwillingness to manage hunting, resulting in seriously damaged populations of many seabird species.'
Hunting between February 15 and the autumn was banned under Greenland's 2001 Bird Protection Act, the country's first legislation promoting the sustainable use of wildlife. Eider ducks have declined by 80 per cent in 40 years and the 150,000 Brünnich's guillemots, seen at a breeding colony in Uummannaq, northern Greenland 60 years ago, have completely gone.
But in each of the seven years since restrictions were imposed hunters have lobbied for restrictions to be relaxed. Politicians relented in 2004 and did so again this year, rushing through their decision on February 29 and allowing the hunting of kittiwakes and eiders throughout March. Greenland's government claimed the birds' numbers had risen sufficiently to withstand the extended onslaught.
About 2,000 of Greenland's 10,000 hunters, out of a population of 56,000, depend on sales of seabird meat at town and city markets. The rest hunt for pleasure alone, using powerful speedboats and semi-automatic guns to make their hobby easy.
Hasse Hedemand, of the Greenland conservation group Timmiaq, said: 'Seabird numbers are no-where near the level you could call sustainable and the decision this year to allow more birds to be killed is a tragedy.
'Greenland is a unique and special place but our international reputation is being tarnished by this unsustainable hunting. Most of the shooting is recreational involving people who do not depend on it for their livelihoods.
'There is a long tradition for hunting in Greenland, but with increasing numbers of people, fast boats and firearms, it is the politicians’ responsibility to ensure that the hunting is sustainable.
'Thousands of tourists come to Greenland for our landscapes, our icebergs and our wildlife but many are returning home disappointed and disillusioned. Our wildlife is in a sorry state compared to 50 years ago. This shouldn't have been allowed to happen.'
Posted by Surfbirds at 6:32 AM | Comments (0)
Extinct in ten years
Asian vultures face extinction in the wild within a decade without urgent action to eliminate the livestock drug that has caused their catastrophic decline, scientists are warning. Their decline has been quicker than that of any other wild bird, including the dodo.
A new study shows that the population of oriental white-backed vultures is dropping by more than 40 per cent every year in India where it has plunged by 99.9 per cent since 1992. Numbers of long-billed and slender-billed vultures together, have fallen by almost 97 per cent in the same period.
Conservationists say that banning the retail sale of the veterinary drug diclofenac and constructing more captive breeding centres is the only way to save the birds.
Manufacture of the veterinary form of the drug, as an anti-inflammatory treatment for livestock, was outlawed in India in 2006, but it remains widely available. Furthermore, diclofenac formulated for humans is being used to treat livestock.
Scientists counted vultures in northern and central India between March and June last year. They surveyed the birds from vehicles along more than 160 sections of road totalling 18,900 kilometres in length. Their study followed four previous counts, the last in 2003.
In a paper, published on April 30th in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, they say 'the oriental white-backed vulture is now in dire straits with only one thousandth of the 1992 population remaining'.
'All three species could be down to a few hundred birds or less across the whole country and thus functionally extinct in less than a decade…It is imperative that [diclofenac] is removed completely from use in livestock without any further delay to avoid the extinction of the three vulture species,' they add.
The scientists believe that numbers of oriental white-backed vultures in India could now be down to 11,000 from tens of millions in the 1980s. Populations of long-billed and slender-billed vultures have dropped to around 45,000 and 1,000 birds respectively.
Vulture numbers may be even lower than the authors’ estimate because many of the sites used for their study were in or near protected areas, where the threat from diclofenac may be lower.
The lead author, Dr Vibhu Prakash, of the Bombay Natural History Society, said 'Efforts must be redoubled to remove diclofenac from the vultures’ food supply and to protect and breed a viable population in captivity.'
Co-author, Dr Richard Cuthbert, of the RSPB, said 'Time has almost run out to prevent the extinction of vultures in the wild in India. The ban on diclofenac manufacture was a good start but a ban on the sale of diclofenac and other drugs known to cause kidney failures in vultures is vital.'
Co-author, Dr Andrew Cunningham of the Zoological Society of London, added, “These survey results show that imminent extinction looms for at least three species of vulture in India. Captive breeding is their last hope, so we are delighted that one of these species, the Oriental white-backed vulture, has successfully been bred this year in one of the captive breeding centres.”
Posted by Surfbirds at 6:26 AM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2008
Bird Studies Implicate Lead Bullet Residues as a Possible Threat to Human Health
(Washington, D.C. – April 30, 2008) Studies of several bird species, including the endangered California Condor, have provided extensive documentation of the health hazard posed to birds that ingest lead ammunition residues in the remains of gun-killed animals. Now, new studies suggest that humans who eat game shot with lead ammunition may also be at risk. A conference to further explore these links, “Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans,” sponsored by The Peregrine Fund, will be held May 12-15, 2008, at Boise State University.
California Condor, Arizona, Bright Angel, Grand Canyon 4th June 2005 © Marcus Lawson
“We’ve been studying the effects of condor lead ingestion for years,” said Rick Watson, Vice President of The Peregrine Fund, a conservation organization that leads the California Condor recovery program in Arizona. “Condors are sickened and some die from eating the remains of shot animals. The possibility that other species, including humans, are also at risk prompted us to organize this conference.”
Recently published research suggests that even very low levels of lead exposure in children can cause learning disabilities, and in adults may increase risk of Alzheimer’s disease and death from stroke or heart attack. Lead is also associated with impaired visual and motor function, growth abnormality, neurological and organ damage, hearing loss, hypertension and reproductive complications. The degree of lead exposure associated with many of these problems is much lower than previously believed.
North Dakota state health officials recently ordered food banks to discard donated venison because it can contain lead fragments. Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and member of The Peregrine Fund board of directors, made the discovery after learning about the problem in a Peregrine Fund report. Cornatzer collected about 100 one-pound packages of ground venison from food pantries in December and ran CT scans on the meat. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the presence of lead in its own tests. Cornatzer plans to present his findings at the conference.
“The lead studies have once again shown us that we ignore the plight of birds at our own peril,” said Dr. Michael Fry, Director of Conservation Advocacy at American Bird Conservancy. “Condors, eagles, ravens, and other wildlife have given us advanced warning of a problem that we are now learning may also have human health consequences.”
The Peregrine Fund will present results of its own recent investigation on lead in hunter-killed animals at the conference. The group is studying the amount of lead in venison from deer shot with standard lead bullets, which fragment into hundreds of tiny pieces upon impact. Their previously published research has shown that these fragments scatter widely into the meat along the bullet’s path of travel. Preliminary results of The Peregrine Fund’s current study will be given at the conference on May 13. The final report will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
A recent study found elevated levels of lead in Common Ravens during the hunting season for deer and elk in the Yellowstone region. Scavengers, such as ravens and raptors, eat offal piles left by hunters, or animals that were shot and not recovered. These remains contain lead bullet fragments. Derek Craighead and co-authors of the raven study, are expected to present additional data at the conference showing that lead is also reaching elevated levels in Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, and other scavengers during the hunting season.
“Unfortunately, the study of ravens in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem indicates that poisonings of birds, both scavengers and raptors, by lead bullets is a widespread problem,” said Dr. Fry.
Recently, there has been a great deal of attention on the problem of lead bullets due to the poisonings of endangered California Condors, highlighted by several independent studies that will be presented at the conference. The use of lead bullets has been banned in the California range of the condor, and work continues to protect the species in Arizona through voluntary use by hunters of non-lead ammunition.
“When informed of the severity of the problem for condors, most hunters in Arizona have chosen to use non-lead ammunition to benefit wildlife,” added Watson, “and once the results from the conference become widely understood, hunters may also choose non-lead ammunition to benefit themselves and their families.”
Posted by Surfbirds at 5:51 PM | Comments (0)